Watch, Listen and Learn

Watch...
ACC and Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) leaders discuss the recently released final policy decision updating the national coverage determination (NCD) governing implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation for Medicare fee-for-service patients. The policy, released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month, includes a requirement for a shared decision-making encounter for four of the six covered indications for ICD implantation. Learn more in a joint ACC and HRS webinar.

Listen...
to the new ACC podcast series — Practice Made Perfect — hosted by President C. Michael Valentine, MD, FACC. Focused on helping clinicians master critical non-clinical competencies, the monthly series features expert interviews on topics like how to negotiate contracts, coding and documentation, payment systems and salaries, understanding clinical quality, and finding a job. The inaugural podcast features interviews with Chad A. Hoyt, MD, FACC, and James M. Daniel Jr., JD, on the basics of physician contracting. Listen to the podcast >>>

...and Learn
That’s what members of the House Committee on Ways and Means did earlier this month when ACC President C. Michael Valentine, MD, FACC, joined with leaders from other medical specialty societies for the first-ever “Red Tape Relieve Initiative Roundtable.” Valentine highlighted the importance of the Quadruple Aim in improving physician wellbeing, noting that physician burnout is real and results in a loss of productivity and added costs. He also highlighted the burdens and costs associated with lack of electronic health record interoperability, as well as prior authorization. The Quadruple Aim is a priority for Valentine, as well as the ACC. In fact, it is a key component of ACC’s next Strategic Plan. Learn more >>>

Good News For Congenital Heart Disease

The House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 1222, the Congenital Heart Futures Reauthorization Act of 2017, championed by Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), which passed by a vote of 394-7. The bill would enhance Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) research and surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), award grants to further study CHD, and direct the National Institutes of Health to report on their ongoing research efforts. The ACC signed on to a coalition letter in support of this bill. The bipartisan bill now moves to the Senate, where a companion bill, S. 477, has already been introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA). The next steps remain fluid and ACC Advocacy staff will be working closely with the bill sponsors to move this legislation forward.